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For the past 8 months, Dr Kimberley O'Brien has been volunteering to help build the capacity of Bhutanese psychiatrists by providing practical techniques via fortnightly video calls to a small team at the National Referral Hospital in Thimphu. Dr Kimberley also researched and recommended resources for the hospital’s parent community to foster children's mental health in Bhutan.
Now, the Bhutanese government has invited Dr Kimberley to visit for 30 days in October 2022. Dr Kimberley’s role is to deliver in-person professional development workshops in the new Child & Adolescent Unit at the hospital. She will present her new workshop 'Principles of Paediatric Practice’ to the allied health team and local educators working with children.
It is not the first time Dr Kimberley has visited the region between China, India and Myanmar. A decade ago, the Quirky Kid founders completed a project called ‘School Days' recording the intricacies of school culture, from school uniforms, school bags, transport to school, hairstyles, playground games and friendships among primary school-aged children. The project included images from India, Brazil, Cuba and other 15 countries and was published as a book and an interactive website (see the archive here) by a Brazilian Publishing house. It is still widely used in Brazil as an educational resource for children on the topic of cross-culture.
You can watch one of the videos recorded in 2012 here.
Dr Kimberley enjoys working in children's mental health across cultures. She travelled solo on public transport across Ghana, Togo, Tanzania, Botswana, Malawi, Zanzibar and Kenya to meet and observe thousands of children at play in schools and in their communities. With more than two decades in the field, Dr Kimberley now dedicates most of her time to presenting practical workshops and meeting paediatric professionals further afield, while supporting and providing opportunities for the incredibly dedicated Clinical Team at QK either in-person or via weekly video calls for Group Supervision.
